Roasting prime rib? Follow these steps for foolproof results

Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune

Your prime rib will taste as good as it looks.

Your prime rib will taste as good as it looks. (Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune)

Robin MatherChicago Tribune

Committing to a prime rib for your holiday meal means a serious investment: A three-rib roast of 6 to 8 pounds, a common size (figure one rib for every two people), can cost nearly a hundred dollars. When you're paying that much, you really don't want to screw it up. You want a meltingly tender, juicy, perfectly medium-rare roast. Here's how to do it.

Note: You'll be happiest if you have an instant-read meat thermometer, but some kind of meat thermometer is a must.

Step 1: Ask your butcher to remove the chine (the bone along the spine) and connected rib bones in one piece and then — this is key — to tie it back on the roast. This makes carving your prime rib much easier.

Step 2: The night before you'll cook, make a paste of 3 to 6 cloves of garlic, mashed with a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Smear this all over the roast. Return the roast, uncovered, to the refrigerator overnight. Why you're doing this: The salt will draw some moisture from the roast and dissolve into that moisture, which will then re-penetrate the meat to carry flavor deep inside. Refrigerating the roast uncovered allows the surface to dry a little bit, which helps in browning, while leaving the meat inside juicy and tender.

Step 3: Retrieve the roast from the refrigerator and set it out, lightly covered with foil, two hours before you plan to cook it. Corral your counter-surfing dog if you must, and don't worry about food safety — two hours is within the safety zone for refrigerated foods.

Step 4: Now, choose your method: low and slow, or high and brief. Either of these will get you there flawlessly, so you can choose the one that suits your plans best. There are pros and cons to each, described in each method.

Step 4a (low and slow): Proponents of the low-and-slow method can choose either to brown the roast at 450 degrees for the first 30 minutes or to brown it quickly for 10 minutes or so at 450 degrees just before serving. Either way, the main cooking is done at 350 degrees for 16 to 18 minutes a pound, to an internal temperature of 120 degrees. For a 7-pound roast, that's going to be about two hours. The roast will finish cooking as it rests for 15 or 20 minutes, and its internal temperature will rise to 130 to 135 degrees — perfectly medium rare.

Pros: That 350-degree oven is just right for cooking other dishes alongside the roast, if you have room. Most vegetable dishes need 30 to 60 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cons: You'll need to be vigilant near the end of the cooking time, as you want to pull out the roast when it hits 120 degrees — which may be earlier than you think, depending on your oven. Check the roast's temperature 30 minutes before you expect it to be done.

Step 4b (high and brief): Here's your method if you want to set it and forget it. Preheat the oven to its highest setting — usually 500 or 550 degrees. Put the roast on a rack (or on top of some carrots, celery and sliced onion, which will flavor the drippings nicely) in the roasting pan, and add just a little water to the bottom of the pan — it shouldn't touch the meat. The water prevents the drippings from smoking as they hit the roasting pan in the oven's high heat.

Roast for 6 minutes per pound — so, for our average 7-pound roast, about 42 minutes. Then turn off the oven and, leaving the roast in the oven, don't open the oven door for two hours. That's it — no resting time needed. The roast is ready to slice and serve at the end of two hours.

Pros: This is definitely the least stressful way to do a high-dollar beef roast. It will come out perfectly medium-rare every time. I usually lay a kitchen towel on the range top so it drapes over the oven door or tie a string to the door handle to remind me not to open it. You may need to instruct the nosy ones in your crowd not to open the oven door under any circumstances, under pain of no roast beef.

This method works with boneless beef roasts as well.

Cons: You absolutely must not open the oven door — which means no side dishes can bake alongside the roast. Solve that by either baking them in advance and sliding them into the oven to reheat when the roast is done, or cover the roast with foil and keep it warm on the range top while you bake the side dishes afterward.

With the roast beef taken care of, only one burning question remains: Shall we have Yorkshire pudding or jus?

Robin Mather is a freelance writer and the author of "The Feast Nearby," a collection of essays and recipes from a year of eating locally on a budget.

A version of this article appeared in print on December 23, 2015, in the Food & Dining section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "PRIMED for CHRISTMAS - Roasting prime rib? Follow these steps for foolproof results" —
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